Co-hosts Ian Sabroe and Dieter Declercq talk with Karla and Bill on the topic of death and dying. This episode explores the complex terrain of race and gender at the intersection of literature, law and bioethics, alongside clinical perspectives on the transformative power of bereavement and the social benefits of funeral ceremonies.

Professor Karla FC Holloway is James B. Duke Emerita Professor of English, African-American Studies, and Professor of Law at Duke University. She’s the author of Passed On: African American Mourning Stories. Her classrooms and scholarship focused on literature, law, and bioethics. She has been a member of the Advisory Bioethics Board of the Greenwall Scholars Bioethics Fellowship and served as a national and international speaker on matters of Black Cultural Studies. Karla FC Holloway’s most recent novel, Gone Missing in Harlem (Triquarterly, 2021) was awarded a Publisher’s Weekly Starred ⭐️ Review (!) and joined her Harlem Renaissance series that began with A Death in Harlem (2019). Her 3rd novel, The Thursday Lady, is nearing completion.

Dr. William G. (Bill) Hoy is Clinical Professor of Medical Humanities at Baylor. He is an experienced hospice/palliative care counselor with more than 35 years of experience caring for the dying and bereaved. Dr. Hoy is widely regarded as an authority on the role of social support in death, dying and grief and his experience includes more than 20 years leading bereavement and pastoral care programs in hospice care. Though primarily a bedside clinician, Dr. Hoy has authored more than 125 articles and book chapters as well as six books, including Do Funerals Matter? (Routledge, 2013), Bereavement Groups and the Role of Social Support (Routledge, 2016) and Finding Meaning in Funerals (Routledge, expected 2024).